sharing information between built applications

[Hopeless]

I am having trouble because most of the functions for sharing informatin between VI do not work once VIs are built in to applications.  I sort of understand this because LabVIEW is running the VIs, but once they are built in to applications they run independantly. 

Is there any way to make the Synchronization functions work between different LabVIEW applications?

Can I keep a sub VI used in two VIs not reenterant once the VIs are built into applications?

I have three applications that I want to build that all need to run at the same time and all use the same external hardware.  I'd like the first application to run initalize the hardware, and the last application to close to close the hardware.  (All could be opened and closed in any order.)  This is easy with VIs but I don't know the best way to make applications aware of each other.   

[Sima]

What version of LabVIEW are you using? You can use shared variables in LV8 to let you transfer information relatively easily across computers or applications. But I'm curious, why would you want your applications to be independent? Why would you want to initialize and close the hardware in an arbitrary order?

[CKap]

Shared Variables is definitely a good choice. Make sure to include the library hosting the shared variables in the built application and also to programmatically deploy it.

Regards,
Chetan K

[Hopeless]

Thanks for the help.  I was looking at the shared variables, but it was good to get a second opinion before doing the programming.  I'v been at it for about 16h and I think I got everything working. 

I just have to fix up a problem I'm having with the installer.    See "Application Builder GPIB-USB MAX"